to bill, so that puts years on you. so in bill years, she's going to be 89. you cannot deny an 89-year-old woman the nomination. >> 89? still up for the job. >> yeah. >> andy borowitz gets tonight's "last word." robbing seniors to pay paul. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in new york. let me start with the republican cold feet over paul ryan. their one-day wonder has become dare i say it? a bit of a morning glory. he bloomed through saturday. kept the blush through sunday. by yesterday the troops were restless. why on god's earth had mr. romney gone out and found the one candidate that could nail them in the coffin with the ryage budget? it shrunk medicare and gave them

the money throwing mama off the cliff to finance big tax cuts for the top 1%? now, we know what's worse than being tagged for republicans voting for the ryan budget, it's having the master mind behind it on the ticket. i give you the next president of the united states, romney said on saturday. getting the job wrong in the introduction was than the gaffe. it was some fear, naming ryan himself. this guy could be worse than quyale because this time, the presidential candidate and his team knew the weakness, saw the trouble they were walking into before they walked into it and that's not the best argument for mr. romney's business. this may be the worst merger since aol bought time warner. with me are two veterans of politics, bob shrum and former republican chairman michael steele and msnbc analyst. i want to start with you, michael, because you are always a straight shooter around here. is cold feet too cold a term to tough a term for the feeling

some are having about ryan with his difficult budget to sell? >> i don't think it's so much cold as it is nervous. i think that as the dust has settled on this and particularly those down ballot congressional races, we're only talking about 25-seat change in the house. when half are close to half of these seats may be in districts that are too close to call for some republican because they lean democrat, it becomes a major concern. now that you already noted, the conversation has shifted away from even, you know, taxes and tax returns and the like to okay, let's talk about the specifics of your budget. let's talk about the specifics of medicare. a lot of those can't i have begun to hear a little bit of the rumbling, among some republicans, are a little bit nervous about it. >> politico's story today was headlines gop pros fred over paul ryan reports.

that was today. quote, away from the cameras and with all the usual assurances that people aren't being quoted by name, there's an unmistakable consensus among republican operatives in washington. romney has taken a risk with ryan that has only a modest chance of going right and a huge chance of going horribly wrong. the most common reactions -- hair on fire to anger that romney ceded in the election. bob, your thoughts. you've dealt with this guy, romney, before. this wouldn't be the best argument for his business with the first big decision he had to make, he picks a guy that's got nails coming out of his head politically. >> i think he waited too long and then got pushed by the right for this choice. i've talked to some of these republican pros. are friends of mine. they read the the polls. they know what's going to happen. one who doesn't like obama at all said to me on sunday, short of economic armageddon, it's going to be hard for obama to loose.

lose. romney had a plan. people were going to blame obama. give romney a try. what has happened with paul ryan is that this has now shifted. the president was trying to shift it all along to who stands up for the middle class. who favors the few. this now confirms that. the shift in the dimension to debating privatizing social security, voucherizing medicare, slashing education. these republican pros are worried not only about what will happen to the ticket but as michael said about what will happen to the republican control of the house which they thought was pretty much assured up until last week. >> do they want this -- i thought they wanted all the focus on obama as a referendum like how is the guy doing out here on the mound? still got his fastball? lost his edge. better than four years ago. you know, the old metaphors. now, the focus is on what about this new kid with his really strong ideas? is that what you want the focus if you're a republican operative right now?

>> no, i think bob is right. have to agree with him on this point. the focus originally as you set up was about this referendum. we want this to be a referendum on the last four years. we want this to be on the spending. the debt. the solyndras of the world. let's talk about what the administration has failed to do, create jobs. mum one priority. now, it is bold. the boldness of this choice is it shifts the debate from a referendum to a choice election. where you get to have a philosophical discussion and choice. >> who wanted that? >> what direction you were going to go. chris, that's good question now. >> the democrats wanted it. i can speak from having observed. bob wanted that. >> i didn't hear anyone talking about making this a choice election up until this past weekend. everyone had bought into the argument and the fact that this should be a referendum on the last four years, not a choice between conservatives.

>> let me even the tables here, bob. back when we saw bill clinton run against george sr., we knew there were problems in bill clinton's personal life. they knew about it. people said we will give him a break anyway. we need to try something new. we knew the fact reagan was sort of an erratic far right winger, but they still said we needed a change in '92 and in another race. people wanted a change. in '92 and another race. people wanted a change. in '80. so even if you have questions about romney, big questions and concerns about ryan, how does that shift away from the main concern of the country right now, the shape of the economy come november? will they still be thinking about ryan the first week of november or the most recent unemployment rate? where are their heads going to be? >> introducing ryan has put romney in a tough spot. he was already hurting. president was making real progress in making this a choice

election in terms of bain, in terms of the offshore accounts, in terms of his tax plan and his own taxes. but this seals the deal and you're now in a situation where basically, mitt romney and i call this now the ryan romney ticket, not the other way around. the substance here is coming from ryan. he's going to have to defend a whole series of positions that are profoundly unpopular. it's pretty amazing, chris, you've been around this for a long time, to see gop pros criticizing the nominee. >> here's mark mckinnon. >> here's one. >> we don't do that. >> mark mckinnon. i'm hurt they don't want to hear fr this guy. he told politico, quote, i think it's a very bold choice. ryan, an exciting and interesting pick. it's going to elevate the campaign into a debate over big ideas it means romney ryan can run on principles and provide real direction and vision for the republican party and probably lose. maybe big. how's that for an endorsement? and some of those anonymous

republicans out there politico spoke to are concerned about their prospects, house and senate races, candidates for house and senate seats. quote, very not helpful down ballot. very, said one top republican. so this is the day that music died. one republican operative said. 2012 race said. the operative said every house candidate is racing to get ahead of this issue. michael, it seems to me, in our experience, candidates don't tend at the presidential level to lose over particular issues like medicare or social security. they tend to make it a much bigger question. but house and senate, i keep thinking of all those people we know. jeremiah denton, from alabama and hawkins from florida. you can go through the list of people who have lost just over medicare or social security position. just gone after the election. >> and i think that's kind of what has folks nervous. they look back on 2010, they look back at the primaries where you know, folks got into a lot

of trouble based on their vote for the ryan budget, so the reality now shifts to this full frontal assault by the romney ryan team to kind of push and redirect the conversation. now, i still think they can get this done. i understand with mr. mckinnon is saying and i think they can make this about big thing, but how they frame that argument to both your points, the questions about the impact of the ryan budget and whether or not and you saw it on 60 minutes, chris, romney kind of backing away from this. >> we pointed that out yesterday. i will keep doing that. let's talk about psycho babble now, my favorite topic in politic. you guys are both old enough to remember when cher broke up with sonny and back when martin and lewis broke up. you never know what will happen to the team. for some reason, starting monday, ryan and romney stopped

campaigning together and romney went back to the old romney. here's a quote about this. ever since splitting up the campaign duties with ryan this weekend, mitt romney seems to have lost the energy he had on the trail with his vp pick. take a look at this afternoon with coal miners. here's not exactly mr. excitement. something about, keep this team together, i would argue, but they aren't and you saw what happened this morning. let's watch. >> that's an impressive scene. you know that right here and right behind me p.m. i'm impressed with men and women who come here and work hard for themselves and their families. your success and hard work helps you and your family, but also, america. i salute you, i appreciate the work you're doing and if i'm president of the united states, i will do everything in my power to make sure you keep jobs and good wages. >> you mean, shrum, this is an opportunity for sheer carcass sarcasm and i'm going to exploit it. he's thanking the coal miners, the most dangerous job, then you

go another couple of miles and then go to work all day in the dark. he's thanking them for doing that. he says thank you for your service? are they working for him? is he the owner? a friend of the owner's? thank you for working for me. it is so weird, i'm sorry, to be thanking people for being coal miners. his inability to connect to these people is so obvious. >> he naturally doesn't connect. when he is with ryan, he gets energy from ryan and the crowds respond. the the same thing happened with john mccain and sarah palin and when palin wasn't campaigning with him, mccain went back to being pretty flat on the campaign trail. >> but mccain's a recognizable human being. there's a difference. he has a temper. he has a sense of humor. he's a human being. he's not an android. >> if you're telling me that mitt is animatronic, i've been saying that for a long time. >> explain that term. that means in the movies, big animals move around. right? that's what it is, right?

disneyland who used to stand up and deliver the gettysburg address. >> it doesn't seem to be working singly. >> it is clear romney gets a lot of energy off of ryan and you saw that on the rollout and without that kind of push and that kind of energy, yeah, he reverts back to what he's comfortable with doing. you know, ryan really elevates the game a little bit and so, i think you'll probably hopefully will see the two of them more together than we may have seen presidential and vice presidential candidates. >> can he go to a presidential debate and bring ryan with him when he has to debate obama? can he do it? >> i think he's going to want to ditch ryan before the debate. >> i think it's about the conservative movement saying after this election if things work out in obama's favor, we ran the wrong guy at the top. we'll get it right next time. in a way, the weird thing in the election so far is that romney may have touted the other guy as the next president of the united states and it's going to turn out he will be the guy to run in

a couple of years. thank you. coming up, hey, big spender. paul ryan voted by the way, for expending medicare for both wars, for the auto bailout, t.a.r.p. without paying for any of it. nothing. prescription drug benefit. never paid for any of it. and his budget's not going to bounce for 1,000 years, apparently. so how do you calm a deficit hawk? i have a question for mitt romney and paul ryan. if they're playing for medicare is such a big deal, why wait ten years? sneak it past the older voters today so the later voters will get stuck with it. we should have it with real peting getting affected by real programs. also, remember president obama's executive order providing a two-year amnesty for people brought up in the united states illegally, but they've grown up as americans? it goes into effect tomorrow. it's going to have a big impact among latino voters when they realize what a godsend it is for their kids. president gets in the dog on

roof act. and the president chided romney today on his infamous decision to drive up to canada with the the dog seamus tied to the roof. watch for seamus. he's coming up in the "side show." ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the da when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. in your car. now count the number of buttons on your tablet. isn't it time the automobile advanced? introducing cue in the all-new cadillac xts.

the simplicity of a tablet has come to your car. ♪ the all-new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. republicans have voted in voter i.d. laws in many states to prevent voter fraud. democrats argue it's a cover for suppressing the democratic vote. now, a reporting project has looked at more than 2,000 cases of fraud over the last ten years. how many of voter impersonation did they find? ten. ten in the country. 145 million unregistered voters. do the math, it comes down to one case for every 15 million voters. we'll be right back.

while ryan's pick frightens some republican party leaders already and insiders as well and

has invigorated tea partiers and fiscal conservatives who see him as a deficit fighting comrade. only one problem with that theory. that branding. it is not true. a look at his 14-year congressional record. and he's not an outsider. he was often willing to vote for expensive government programs without worrying to pay for a nickel of it. he voted for the $70 billion bank bailout, auto bailout, the wars in iraq and afghanistan and for bush's prescription drug benefit. he backed the 2005 highway, transportation legislation, highway bill, the bridge to nowhere. he voted for no child left behind. none of that was paid for. he voted for everything under w. and that doesn't sound like the record of a deficit hawk, so what is paul ryan's really governing philosophy? michael crawley and john nicholls, john, i want you to start on this thing.

what can you expect from paul ryan to the extent he has influence and i expect he'll have a lot with romney. what will he do when he gets power back based on whate's done with power before? >> well, he's actually got a governing philosophy and it's pretty clear. it's the 1920s big house on the hill republican. he believes that the roll of government is to intervene when rich guys have a problem or when there's a war that needs to be fought and the funny thing about him is that paul ryan has a reputation. he's built it up carefully over a long period of time as a republican who really is deep into the numbers, deep into the reality of budget, but his default position when ever a big issue comes into play, is basicay what is the the u.s. chamber of commerce say? what does the business community say as regard to what it needs? frankly, if it says it needs an auto bailout or bank bailout or if the pharmaceutical companies

want a structuring of medicare that gives them a lot more money, he votes for it. >> so, this is more, let me go to you, michael. it sounds more like the petroleum club in tulsa or in salt lake, one of the establishments where 15 or so men get together and call the shots. is this what he is a chamber guy? doesn't sound like a tea party guy especially to me either. >> i think another way to look at it is his background. he was sort of tutored by jack kemp. the supply side economics of the republican party. >> but jack kemp never cut the poor people. >> well, right. but i think that part of what is fundamental to ryan's vision, i don't know so much object how kemp would have done it sh but supply side economics, you cut taxes at the top. i guess you know, theoretically, cut them across the board, but there seems to be an emphasis on tax rates at the top and according to this theory, that

increases tax revenue. i don't think there's a ton of evidence for that. >> why? let me ask you -- really important to our viewers. important to me. how can you justify making a guy who works in the mines, like romney cheering these guys, scary enough to go into the mines. they're real workers. every buck they make i'm sure is well earned and charge them higher tax rate. in fact, don't tax at all the people who live off money, but just sit on a pile of money, but don't have to pay taxes on the dividends or profits or the capital gains because this guy, paul ryan, thinks rich people shouldn't have to pay taxes on money they make off their riches. how do you justify that to any voter except the richest people in the country? >> it's a really tough sell. i think you have to make the argument, it's hard to make, which is that you have to unleash economic growth and you know, remove the burden of government from the job creators. i'm not trying to make that

point myself. >> why is someone sitting on a bunch of money a job creator? not even working? why is capital gains a job -- let me get back to john this. on does capital gains -- pay nothing taxes from making money, how does that help stimulate the economy more than that guy working in the mines digging up coal or whatever? >> of course, it doesn't. so many of these theories that he's -- buys into have been proven not to work. one of the problems that he -- he's got, i have known paul a long time, is that he's fascinated by economic theory. some of which are 100 years old, when you didn't have globalization and you could make the rich guy rich and eventually, he might through a little of the money around. today, when you make the rich

guy rich, he puts his money in a tax haven overseas and if he has any extra, he opens a factory in china. >> is this guy a fiscal hawk or does he simply spend money at liberty when he likes the project? whether it's prescription drug, t.a.r.p. of bailout of rich people, bailout of corporations or banks. it seems like ryan only started worrying about paying for things since obama's been elected president. under w., he never worried about the price tag. what do we make of that, michael? just a simple hypocrisy of a guy who will spend any nickel as long as it's designated as good spending by w., of all people, the minute -- obama shows up, no deal? >> i think the second piece of this, there's a supply side philosophy then a conservative reform. he's really interested in cutting back what he sees is not the core of government functions, safety and security, so anything that's welfare, state, that might be seen as a handout or creating dependency,

he puts a higher priority on slashing those things. and so he's a reformer. but you know, there are plenty of cases, you're absolutely right, when he was given a choice, the deficit was not his first choice. i don't think the deficit is his overriding priority. he's a supply cider and he's he is a supply sider and he's cast a bunch of votes that kind of made sense for a congressional republican making his way through the system. it is not the case that deficit has been his first priority throughout his career. >> seems like he only started worrying about paying for things under obama. let me ask you about this thing, i think he represents the conflict in american government. people hate the word socialism, they hate the word dependents. but here he is running for things like the bailout, the bank bailout, the auto bailout, all these wars we spend money on. creating a medicare prescription bill. they do all this because it's what people want. they want to fight these wars,

what they see as our enemies and appropriately so. they want to have prescription drugs because that's the main cost of getting older. but yet they give lip service to rand and we don't need help from the government. isn't he the walking, talking conflict person? who wants to take that one? >> paul ryan came out of the mainstream of republican politics, this is a guy whose dad's former law partner got him a job in the senate in 1992 with bob caston, who was on the banking committee. he went out to washington and learned his way around the city. he is a political operative. he is not a conservative in any kind of classic sense. he didn't come out through conservative activism. he came up through sort of the core of the business republican party and i think that's the best way to understand him.

he is a smart guy. likes to read economics books, but he's not an economist and he also isn't somebody who's really going to steer this country in some sort of new or different direction, except that when he has to make choices and this is place people ought to be troubled on. when he needs to make choices, if it is about giving a rich guy a tax break, versus giving a working woman a tax break or a little bit of food stamps or something like that, he will err on the side of the rich guy. that's his pattern that comes again and again. >> he likes to do them both at once. supply side economics plus government reform to reduce dependency. >> really an act of courage to make everybody happy. thank you. up next, president obama jumps on the dog on the roof bandwagon.

the president takes on poor seamus one more time. [ male announcer ] it seems like every company

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and it looks pretty serious. esurance. click or call. in college, paul ryan, one of his jobs was, he drove the oscar meier wienermobile. you know what i'm talking about. he and romney have something in common. both have the experience of driving a car with a dog on the roof. never get enough of that. >> any way. letterman's not the only one still needling mitt romney over the seamus on the roof incident. he's president obama. >> he said that new sources of energy like wind are imaginary.

governor romney even explained his energy policy this way. i'm quoting here. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. that's what he said about wind power. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. now, i -- i don't know if he's actually tried that. i know he's had other things on his car. >> like the giggle he gets before he knows the joke's coming. that zinger came early today as part of the president's spin through iowa. doesn't it seem like one word's dominating the back and forth over the pick? bold, perhaps. >> governor romney's selection of paul ryan is a terrific selection. a bold leader. >> i'm so proud of my running mate. i think in this case, it is also a bold choice. >> there's a boldness to this decision. >> this was a big, bold, courageous choice. >> the american people have already had a glimpse of the ryan republican congressional budget.

it's bold. it's bold, but i don't get, i mean this sincerely now. i don't get what's gutsy about giving millionaires about tax break. >> he's a big, bold choice because it really does say something about mitt romney. he's picking someone who has a budget plan under which mitt romney would pay less than 1% in taxes. >> works both ways, but what makes the pick such a bold move? ask stephen colbert. >> romney/ryan 2012. very excited. yes. mitt romney picked wisconsin congressman, paul ryan, and folks, this was no safe choice. bold. bold. i mean, so daring. i mean, white, christian and male? that's a triple not threatening to me and of course, like all republican vp picks, he looks exactly like tina fey. >> isn't that the name of a laundry detergent? actually it is.

finally, president obama is the subject of an optical illusion tonight. take a look at this snapshot from a speech in iowa yesterday. is he looking into the future with some kind of glowing orb? finally, i say, some evidence, donald trump has been looking for. obama's not just an alien. he is an alien. up next, guess who needs to be convinced about the paul ryan budget? mitt romney. you're watching "hardball." place for politics.

now back to "hardball." >> you said earlier this year, rhine paul ryan's earlier medicare proposal is absolutely right on. so i'm curious, is there anything about it you disagree -- >> well, the items we agree on i think outweigh any differences. i can't imagine any two people even in the same party that have exact there same positions on all issues. >> that's not very effective. the biggest risk of a rag candidate mike romney misses in picking a fire brand like paul ryan is all the gaps in romney's plans will be filled in with ryan's details. ryan is not so sure he wants to be wedded to romney's plan.

clearly delineate what would president obama do, what has he done under his health care act to medicare in terms of cuts in medicare spending? what would -- what would ryan do and what would romney do? can you delineate among the three so people now on medicare are facing tonight next couple of years, will see what their choices are? >> how much time do we have? >> you can do it quickly. so, what obama does is he keeps medicare broadly as it has been, but makes important changes to it. it remains a single payer system. if you're over 65, the government pays for your health insurance. but he makes some cuts to it. those cuts are focused on some of these payments that go to

private insurers and in coming years, they include changes to that medicare tried to do a little bit less of paying for quantity of health care and more of paying for quality of health care. there are health experts to which the plan did more. there are those who see it as on the way to death panels. that's basically what -- >> >> the obama plan. the white house, basically are saying no commitment to any recipient, someone over 65, nobody's going to get hurt. is that fair? >> well, i don't know whether that's fair. anytime you change a program, it has the potential to be both better and/or worse. right? there may be things in the future that medicare doesn't pay for. draining on taxpayers. on the other hand, there may be some things it now pays for that people like and may not be quite as generous in the future. >> what would ryan do? >> so, i think we can put ryan and romney broadly in the same

place and say what they would do is move this to a different kind of system. whether you call it voucher of premium support. instead of the government covering the bill, whatever it is, they would send money to individuals and they could then go buy a health insurance plan, whether on the private market or still from the government, still medicare, and they can do that. the big uncertain questions about that with run, will over the long-term, introduce more competition to the system and reduce costs as romney and ryan claim lit or will it fail do that? and as a result will people essentially be left with a health insurance benefit that is significantly less generous than medicare now is. i think most experts think the more likely case is the latter. while there could be save things are, it are also result in a benefit that's less generous. >> let me go over to ezra now. we assume it is going to be tough other the seniors if you go with the ryan/romney plan. look who it is nicer to. if obama is cutting some of the money going to insurance

companies, it looks like ryan and romney are offering up a big piece of the pie, slice of the pie now, to the insurance companies. instead of people paying into medicare which goes to the government revolving fund, they are going to be giving money, a portion of the money to the insurance companies. this is great for them. >> if you're a private insurance company, you would really like to move to a premium support system. what obama does, he takes money away from this medicare advantage program. these are these private insurers brought into the system to offer cheaper options. usually managed care options, 20% more. they are ratcheting about 20% back. what's interesting is ryan kept those cut, so every dollar of cuts over the next ten years that obama made in the health care bill, ryan kept them in the budget and every republican in the house voted for them and every republican in the senate voted for them. romney says he wouldn't allow that. he wouldn't sign that part of the budget.

he simultaneous sly saying on the one hand he wants credit for being the guy that will make tough decisions on medicare. on the other hand, unlike every republican in the house and senate and barack obama and democrats, he wouldn't allow for even a dollar in cuts to medicare over the next decade. doesn't make you think he can make tough decisions on budgets. >> for the viewer out there who cares about this personally, he basically says i'll see the cuts obama talked about and add to them by shrinking this into a voucher program. >> romney over the next ten years, says he will not allow any of the cuts agreed on and this his reforms will begin ten years from the date he pass it is budget. he's trying to play a little game here, right? it will just be those folks coming after you who will get hit. whether or not that makes this likely to go into effect or not is a more open question. >> i asked you questions like this before and you held back. if you are 60 years old right now, what's the smart move? going with ryan, romney or obama? >> i don't tell people how to

vote. >> no, in terms of policy. >> people have to make judgment calls on where they think federal dollars should go. medicare's on the same path spending wise under obama and ryan. it will grow gdp plus 0.5%. obama tries to make that work by changing things on the provider and payment side. trying on to make medicare pay for quality. ryan does it by moving to a voucher program. if you're voting on medicare in the direction you think will be more effective. >> take a look at this romney campaign ad. it is the new tv ad and attacking the present on medicare coming from romney's side. >> you paid into medicare for years. every paycheck. now when you need it, obama has cut $716 billion from medicare. why? to pay for obama care. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is is going to a massive new government program that's not for you. the romney/ryan plan protects medicare benefits for today's

seniors and strengthen it is plan important the next generation. >> again, the obama campaign had a response to that. the saving his ad attacks do not cut a single guaranteed medicare benefit and mitt romney embraced the same savings when he promised he would sign paul ryan's budget. there we go again. back again. david here. the shell game that goes on here. paul ryan assumes the cut that is obama recommended in his affordable act bill, in fact, carried and signed. and yet, he says i wouldn't go that route. and back to the question of is it really going to work? the obama plan, to basically force the savings to the providers and not effect the recipients. >> i don't know that we know. if we were bogey to try to boil this down, they are there are so many different charges about who is cutting medicare more. i think what we would say is obama, for better or worse, has more modest changes or cuts to medicare.

he has some. the republican plan has much more. so the question is how much change to medicare do you want? modest changes, obama's plan. or more radical changes because you're more worried about the fiscal sustainability of medicare. we're not hearing that debate because basically, neither side wants to. they want credit for being bold on the deficit. but they don't want credit for actually doing the things you need to do to cut the deficit, which is cut spending. >> i think david put it right and the way to think about this in the long-term, what happens if their first plan doesn't work. in the ryan plan, if it doesn't work, the cost gets shifted on to the patient. you pay the difference for what you need for a reasonable plan and cheapest plan. in the obama world, it gets shifted on to providers who pay hospitals and drug companies, insurers, et cetera, less money.

that is a fundamental difference. >> providers that get cut under obama. thank you, dave and ezra klein. up next, why tomorrow may be the day president obama wraps up the latino vote. we've got a big story that has not been covered well. we're going to cover it pretty well right now. this is "hardball." the place for politics. those surprising little things she does still make you take notice. there are a million reasons why. but your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache.

to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. michelle obama has been waging a war against obesity.

the new study suggests she has her work cut out for her. where to start. number five on the list of obese states, michigan, obesity rate of more than 33% of people are obese. after that, alabama. four, west virginia weighs in at the state with the third highest rate. the first runner up is louisiana and the state that tops the list for the heaviest people is mississippi. obesity rate of about 35%. well, four of those five states, by the way, voted republican in 2008. whatever that means, about 80% of the top 15 states are red states. red states are somewhat larger in very personal terms than blue states. we will be right back. whatever that means.

we're back. when congress failed to pass the dream act, president obama issued his own executive order to temporarily allow young illegal immigrants to live in the united states. tomorrow, his plan takes effect. over 1.5 million people can apply for a two-year reprieve from deportation and for work permits. and those eligible include undocumented immigrants between the ages of 15 and 30 who arrived in the u.s. before their 16th birthday. they must have lived in the u.s. for five consecutive years. applicants must be students, high school graduates, or honorably discharged members of the military. joining me is jose and victoria. our nbc latina contributor. we only have a little time, but this is a big story in the latino community.

what does this mean to people who may know hispanic people, teenage people, and they may suspect they're not here legally? >> this is huge, chris. as of tomorrow, people who got to this country through no fault of their own, before they were 16 years of age, are less than 30 years now, can apply even though they don't appear on i.c.e. or the government's radar screen, they can come out and say, yes, i fall within these guidelines, and they will get a two mf year reprieve from any kind of government harassment. >> and this is done by pure executive order? >> yeah, it took two years. >> how could the president do something like this? >> he said for a year he couldn't. >> now the attorney general says he can. >> republicans say he can't, but as of tomorrow, there's maybe 1.8 million young kids who will have an opportunity who haven't had it before. >> victoria, political impact statement, what is it? >> this is about mobilization.

we're really pumping up the enthusiasm in the latino electorate. earlier this year, over half of latinos said they weren't feeling that enthuiastic about the election, compared to 2008, and days after this degree was put into effect, we saw that latinos, that jump over 50% of latinos say they're more enthused about voting for the president. so the president needs latinos to turn out. he doesn't have a problem with their favorability. they have approved of the president, but he needs them to be enthusiastic in getting out to the polls. >> let me ask you about not picking rubio. >> to introduce romney. >> introduce him that night, big thursday night. is that enough? does it show respect to the community? >> for the south florida folks, the cuban american votes in south florida, it is, because they see him as a young rubio, a young man starting out his career on a national level and he's getting a big spotlight. >> that's what kennedy got in

'56. >> there's the i-4 corridor, a lot of voters throughout the state that aren't latino, that are cuban american and are saying, i don't know how much marco rubio brought to florida on a national level. >> what happens if he speaks fluent spanish, not george w. spanish, but a guy who speaks it as a mother tongue? will that grab people across the country or a latino? >> absolutely not. >> absolutely not? >> no, we need substance. we don't need pop and style. we need substance. >> you are tough. >> i'm just saying. >> somebody spoke my language that i grew up in this country and spoke it as a second language and i'm hearing my heart talk, it would affect me. >> but chris, if you can speak spanish and at the same time not put forward draconian immigration policies, that's the winning combination. you can't have just the style by itself. if he brings on the policy, then so be it, but what i want to say is keep your eye on iowa,

virginia, and north carolina. these are states you don't think of as having a latino impact, but they can. they have 2% to 3% latinos and it's a statistical dead heat. >> if they vote, thank you very much. when we return, let me finish with this. does mitt romney really want this job? does he want to go for it? does he really like what he's doing? he doesn't seem to like it, except when he was with ryan because ryan seems to like it. this is a strange character. we have said that before. maybe not evil or anything, but odd. there's something odd about the guy. i don't knewhat it is. we'll be right back. sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

people say they liked him there, he was happy, making big money, making it fast. he liked that. he doesn't seem to like the new business, the wanting to be president business. he wants to be president, for sure. it's getting there. it's the politics that are going to win. we know one thing, that politics doesn't end when somebody reaches the white house. barack obama could also use more political ability that he has shown with the congress. what is this with romney? the minute he got separated from paul ryan, he got dead, deadly. is he doing this for love? is he a politician because he loved what he's fighting for? is he really devoted to the solutions he's offering?